About Us
We think of design + architecture as a process that empowers our clients to envision a future, and that allows us to help guide the outcome. Buildings may be fixed objects, but the process of building is in constant motion. Our goal is to help others imagine and then navigate the design and construction process.
As designers, we strive to understand the vision and needs of our clients first in order to tailor our approach. We value honestly, clarity, and empathy and believe building works best when everyone is aligned over the same goals. We enjoy taking the time to get to know all of our partners and seek to create trust in the relationships we foster. We aim to build relationships that allow us to create meaningful forms and spaces.
We enjoy working on projects close to home just as much as we look forward to building abroad. We believe each project presents an opportunity to get to know a place and its people. Our hope is for each project to take on a life of its own, and for the design to be of the place and timeless.
Juan Jofre Lora is the Founder and Principal of Estudio Esmero, an Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and a Registered Architect in the state of New York and New Jersey.
He was the inaugural recipient of the Fellow in Design at the School of Architecture in the University of Texas, Austin, where he taught graduate and undergraduate design studios and seminars, and in 2011 was named a Soros Fellow for New Americans.
Prior to founding Estudio Esmero, Juan worked for several renown firms, including A+I, Tod Williams & Billie Tsien, Weiss/Manfredi, Studio Libeskind, and KPF. He has also participated in multiple public exhibitions, including as the Research Coordinator for OfficeUS, the American Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale.
Juan pursued his graduate degree in Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was the recipient of the Thesis Prize for his work on architecture in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Prior to graduate school, he attended the University of Cincinnati as a Darwin T. Turner Fellow and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors in Science of Architecture.
He was born in Bogota, Colombia and immigrated to the United States in 1996.
